by Wesley Stein
“Who is Adele?”
“She’s a very old resident,” the man replied as he led Robbins down the wide corridor. “She’s been here a long time and knows everyone. She knows Mister Stahl well, got to know him before he lost his speech. Turns out he was once sweet on her niece. Can you imagine? It’s a small world.”
“Thank you,” Robbins replied. It was all he could think to say. They reached an opened door and the nurse paused.
“Bonjour Madame Adele,” he said. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”
“Who is it?” A voice asked from inside the room.
Robbins leaned in to see an old woman, silver-haired and wrinkled, propped up in a bed watching television.
“Bonjour madame,” Robbins said. “Do you mind if I speak with you?”
“Please,” the woman kindly offered. “Sit down.”
“I’ll let you two chat,” the nurse said before disappearing from the doorway.
Robbins smiled at the woman and she smiled back. He took a seat in a wingback chair near her bed.
“I came a long way to speak with Monsieur Stahl,” Agent Robbins began. “I was told you know him well?”
Adele’s demeanor changed. Her brow furrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest.
“If you’ve come for the gold,” Adele cautioned, “it’s too late. He’s already given it away.”
“I don’t know anything about gold, Madame,” Robbins insisted. “I’ve come because three young girls have been abandoned and I’m looking for their mother and father.”
The old woman’s face shifted again, softening with empathy.
“Have you baked much?” She asked. Her question caught Robbins off guard. He chalked it up to her old age.
“No madame,” he replied with a smile. “Not much.”
“What does Stahl have to do with these girls?” She asked.
“Their parents may be involved with pirates,” Robbins said softly. “There was similar pirate activity years ago when Stahl was in the area.”
“Andy came from Tahiti,” Adele said. “My niece was there with him. He came here in seventy-two.”
“How is he so young?” Robbins asked. Even as the question escaped his lips he was confused by it. Stahl, according to the records of the consulate, should be well into his seventies by now.
“Yeast is one of the most incredible creatures,” Adele said from nowhere. “It eats sugar and uses it to transform itself.”
“What happened to Romeo?” Robbins tried to bring her back to the subject. “Why is he called that?”
“My niece is named Juliet,” Adele answered. “She gave him that nickname, shortly before she cursed him.”
“He’s cursed?”
“He and I both,” the old woman replied. “He’s far worse off, but I’m afraid the same fate awaits me.”
“What did she do,” Robbins asked, “Juliet?”
“Stahl came here in search of answers,” Adele began to explain. “He wanted to discover as much of Juliet’s past as he could. When he found me here in seventy-two, he had no idea he’d end up staying.”
“Why did he stay?”
“He told me about an island,” she said. “Where he and my niece had settled together and created a society of hedonists. There’s a legend that the island has a special power in the water that bleeds from its heart.”
“What power?”
Adele looked away in thought. She considered the television remote control in her hand.
“Yeast loves warm water,” she said. “If you add warm water and sugar to the yeast and leave it to rise, you’ll have a fine starter for a loaf of bread.”
“What power is in the water?”
“The water draws you to the island like a drug,” Adele said. “Once you drink, you can never leave. The water springs from the fountain of youth. Try to carry it from the spring and it will evaporate, turning to steam right before your eyes.”
“Romeo drank?”
“Yes,” Adele replied. “And then he was kicked out, exiled.”
“Why?”
“Because the others wouldn’t share power,” the old woman answered. “Once he was away for too long, the water began to betray him.”
“What happened?”
“First his mind slipped,” Adele answered. “Then his voice went. The body may not age, but the soul does.”
“Was he involved with the shipping heists?”
“He was. That’s how they built the island.”
“Why didn’t he go back?”
“His time away from the water took its toll. By the time he reached me here, he couldn’t remember how to get back.”
Robbins considered his options. He wasn’t sure about the woman’s story, but he felt there was truth to some of it.
“Will he ever get better?”
“He needs to drink from the fountain again,” Adele answered. “It’s the only way to save him.”
“How do I get to the fountain? How do I find the island?”
“You don’t,” Adele answered. “You can’t.”
“Then he’s doomed.”
“There are ways to get the water from the island,” the old woman smiled. “Juliet found a way.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she sent me some.”
“What?”
“She poisoned me,” the old woman lamented. “My niece poisoned me with that unholy water.”
“Poison? I thought the water had the power of life?”
“Anything that has the power to give life also has the power to take it. I treated Juliet badly, years ago. I was not a good caretaker for her and she wanted revenge on me.”
“How did she poison you?”
“She sent me a package,” Adele said. “If I had known Romeo then, I would have given it to him. He'd already sipped the waters of the fountain, so to him the bread would have meant salvation. But to me it was a curse. Juliet knows I regret the things I did to her. She wants me to live a long time with that regret. That is my penance, to live forever with nothing more to drink than my sorrow.”
“Bread?”
“That’s right,” Adele confirmed. Then she shifted in her bed and checked the doorway to see if anyone was coming.
“What is it?” Robbins asked.
“You should take Andy back with you,” she whispered. “He needs to get close to that island. He needs to drink. He’s the only one who can stop Juliet.”
“But you said I’d never find the island,” Robbins said. “And, with respect, Madame, I just met you.”
“Take him with you,” she insisted. “If you can find a way to get him the water, you’ll see for yourself.”
“What about the infirmary? They won’t let him leave with me.”
“Sure they will,” Adele said. “They’d be all too happy to be rid of him. He has no family, no friends. The last time he had a visitor was when he signed away his fortune to a slimy lawyer.”
Robbins perked up. He knew that Mark was an attorney.
“A lawyer?”
“Came a few years ago,” Adele said. “He brought papers for Andy to sign. Andy liked the man, I suppose. But I think he was coerced. He wouldn’t have given him the gold willingly.”
“What gold?”
“Three gold pieces,” Adele said. “Andy told me they were a map to the island.”
“If I get Andy close to the island,” Robbins began. “Do you think his condition could improve. Could he rehabilitate himself enough to talk?”
“It’s worth a try,” Adele answered. “Take him with you.”
Robbins scratched his head and thought about his decision. He wondered if he had the chance to save another life.
Did Andy Stahl belong in a nursing home high in the foothills of the French Alps? Maybe not. Andy made up his mind and stood with a pat of his knees.
“Alright then,” he declared. “I’ll do it.” Adele smiled at him.
“Good,” she offered. “I
hope you won’t have any trouble getting his travel papers in order.”
“Not to worry Madame Adele,” Robbins bowed. “I work for the Secretary of State.”
“What the hell happened?”Agent Free wanted to know. Tuahine and Robbins were scrambling to come up with an answer.
“Something went wrong,” Tuahine said. “I still can’t raise Tua on the radio.”
Robbins went to the back of the boat and raised his binoculars. He couldn’t see any ships on the horizon.
Free stepped past Tuahine and joined him, then together they went up the steps that led to the higher deck.
“Are we sure we’re at the rendezvous point?” Free asked. Robbins nodded as he whipped his head around and checked the Global Positioning System monitor.
“These are the right coordinates,” he said. “Tua is simply not here.”
“The sun is almost up. We’ve been here all night. What could have happened to him?”
“Let’s stay calm,” Tuahine suggested from the lower deck. She climbed up the steep staircase to join them. “Tua is strong, and he’ll be okay. It's the girls I’m worried about.”
“Run it down for me one more time,” Free requested. “What am I missing?”
Tuahine sighed and looked away a moment, the deep purple of the pre-dawn was beginning to illuminate the water. She ticked off the plan, step by step, using her fingers as markers.
“While he’s on board with the pirates,” she said with her thumb.
“He finds the girls,” she said with her forefinger.
“He throws them in a rescue boat,” she said with her middle finger.
“And meets us at this latitude and longitude,” she said, pulling on her ring finger. Then she added her pinky.
“And last we had him on radio, he had the girls in the rescue boat and was headed here.”
“So, the pirates caught up to them?”
“Not likely,” Robbins interjected. Tuahine was already shaking her head in agreement with him. Robbins explained.
“If the pirates found Tua, they’d have already radioed to us, demanding a ransom.”
“Then the rescue boat foundered,” Free offered. Tuahine liked the theory, the only one that made sense so far.
Robbins said nothing, but instantly moved to the bridge and fired up the engines to his small yacht.
“It’s worth a look,” he said. “We can head toward the shipping lane, and see if we can spot anything. It’s almost sunup.”
“Good call,” Free said. He shot Tuahine a worried stare. “But what if Tua is close? We can’t leave.”
“Tua will be okay,” she said. “He’s a strong swimmer. We’ll circle back in no time.”
Robbins throttled up the engines, and soon they were breaking waves across the South Pacific at speed. The sun was now breaching the horizon, and the calm water suddenly became an ocean of fire. Tuahine and Free stood side by side, on the bow, their eyes strained to the horizon. In a few minutes, they’d be close to the shipping lane, where Tua had tried to rescue the sisters.
The sisters, for their part, had not given Tua a chance to reveal himself. He had not expected them to try and escape, but neither had he been able to explain his plan to them ahead of time. He only had a small window in which to get them aboard the rescue boat, and no time to unbind them, or remove their hoods, or explain himself. He only said, “I’m not going to hurt you.” The sisters had not believed him.
Free squinted his eyes and focused on a black dot ahead. The sun was higher now, and the water’s red glimmer had softened. He whistled.
Tuahine’s eyes widened as she heard Robbins slow the engines. She glanced around to spy what Free was seeing. He pointed it out, off the bow, maybe two-hundred yards away.
“There,” he said to her. Tuahine followed Free’s arm and finger, tracing the line out into the ocean, where she finally spotted it.
“It’s him,” she said. “That’s Tua.”
Free wasn’t sure how she could be certain, but he’d learned never to question a mother’s intuition.
Robbins brought the boat to and idled toward the floating body. As they approached, Tuahine leaned over the starboard bow and strained for a better look. She couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead, but it looked like her son.
Robbins, fearful of running him over, stopped the boat well behind the floating body and drifted toward him on the starboard side.
“Hey,” they heard him call. Tuahine smiled and leaned over further. She could see her son, waving to the boat.
When they had pulled him from the water and tended to his wounds, Tua was okay. And he had quite the story to tell.
Robbins fired up the engines again and steered the boat toward their home.
Tua protested.
“Where are you going?” He asked. “They went that way.” He pointed to the north. “We need to get going.”
“Slow down,” Tuahine cautioned. “We can’t just go storming the island.”
“But the sisters most certainly made it there,” Tua said. “We saved them from being delivered to the island, but they headed that way nonetheless.”
“Let’s regroup,” Free said. “Let’s get a plan, some more manpower-”
“It might be too late by then,” Tua said. “We go back now.”
His mother nodded. She exchanged a glance with Agent Free and the former Consular Agent, Robbins. They nodded too.
Robbins revved up the motor and spun the boat around. Soon, they were speeding north, toward Three-Hook Island for a reckoning.
Tua had a moderate concussion and a nice gash in the back of his head, but otherwise he was okay. He pulled a black bandanna over his forehead and tied a bandage on with it. He was dressed head to toe in black, as they all were, and on his hip was a Glock 9MM.
Tuahine was also packing a 9MM and Free had a shotgun. Robbins drove the boat as fast as he dared to push it. They had a bearing north from the shipping lane where Tua had been tossed overboard.
They planned to cast anchor a few miles offshore, then take a black inflatable with a 40-horsepower outboard to the island. They wanted to sneak to shore undetected. But after they had been searching for hours, their chances at a stealth operation began to dwindle. The sun had been up for a while, and they still had not found their destination.
But finally, just when they were about to give up, Tuahine spotted the landmass in the distance and called it out to Robbins, who adjusted their course. Tua shouted. Tuahine stood at the front of the boat with Agent Free again, him smiling at her.
“We’re going to get them,” she said. “I can feel it.”
“I hope you’re right,” he nodded.
Robbins brought the yacht around and killed the engines. The island was a misty apparition on the horizon. Tua came down from the helm with Robbins and they began to prep the dinghy. Free took another look at the island in the distance.
“So that’s it, huh? Three-Hook Island? After all these years, it feels like finding the lost city of Atlantis.”
“We’re gonna get in and get out,” Tuahine confirmed. “Are you with us?”
Free nodded and they stepped toward the edge of the ship.
Within minutes, the four of them were aboard the black boat and cruising across the tops of the waves.
When they made landfall, it was near the same beach where the sisters had landed, only farther to the east, where the submerged rocks were fewer and the distance between them farther.
The four of them carried the boat from the water and hid it among the trees. Tua had advised that they cache the dinghy, in case the beaches were being patrolled.
“The cargo ship is around on the north shore,” Tua said. “That must be where their camp is. We’ll walk around there.” he pointed to a lava crest high up to our right.
Everyone nodded and they began up the slope, the same one up which the sisters had climbed only days before.
Once at the top they could better see the layout of the island and
two of the curving peninsulas that resembled hooks.
Tua didn’t want to cross through the thick jungle, but he knew walking along the beach was risky. They needed to maintain the element of surprise.
“Come on,” Tua said as he stepped down the other side of the crest, toward the trees.
The four of them walked, Tua in the lead, followed by his mother, then Robbins, and Agent Free bringing up the rear. They hiked inland, through the trees and bushes as the dark canopy of the jungle closed in over them.
After a while they came across a stream of water, flowing along the jungle floor. Tua bent down and cupped a handful.
“It’s filthy,” he said. “I wouldn’t drink it.”
“Good thing we brought our own,” Tuahine said.
“Yeah, but the girls didn’t,” Tua replied. “They would've been searching for freshwater. I hope they didn’t drink this.”
The search-party kept moving along the stream until the terrain grew more rocky and sloping and the dirty water began to cascade from the short bluffs of onyx. Tua could see the summit of the ridge ahead of them but worried it might be too steep for them to climb over.
When they had finally made it out of the trees, it was to emerge on the green hillside near where the three spokes of the island wheel came together in a hub. They were near the shared eye of the three hooks but still could not see the northern side of the island.
“If we can get over this ridge,” Tua said. “We should be able to see them, do some reconnaissance.”
“It’s too steep,” Tuahine said as they came nearer the crest.
The wall of black rock rose ten feet or more, dotted with green ferns and velvety lichen. It was a shelf that ran along the ridge, a natural wall of protection against outsiders.
Tua did not see the cave opening, where the sisters had hidden from their parents, so he devised another plan to get over the mountain.
“I think me and Free could lift you, Mom.”
“I beg your pardon?” Tuahine asked. “You want me to go up this?”
“I do,” her son answered. “And we’re going up after you. If we work together, we can get everyone up this wall.”
They all looked to Langston. Agent Free was a large man, not fat, but heavy and tall.
“I can’t climb up that,” he said.